Ultra Series/Cultural References
As one of Japan's popular Tokusatsu which falls into daikaiju and kyodai genre, the Ultra Series had been parodied and referenced in popular culture multiple times, ranging for the first Ultraman's Specium Ray to rising scenes. Anime/Manga Cartoons The Simpsons A couch gag which is first seen in the fifteenth season has the members of the family appear as well-known anime, manga and tokusatsu characters in Tokyo. Marge is Jun from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Lisa is Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon, Bart is AstroBoy, and Homer appears as Ultraman himself. He is initially seen in the background as a giant, then flies and shrinks in front of the TV, performs a few attacks and finally uses his Specium Ray to turn on the TV. File:Gag del sofá FABF02.png X-men: The Animated Series In episode 14 of the fifth season of X-men: The Animated Series, an alien that bears a strong similarity to Alien Flip appears in a sequence montage of aliens that live in the universe. Another Alien Flip also appeared in the episode entitled 'Mojo Vision' as one of the many alien spectators. Ben 10 franchise The alien Way Big, the Omnitrix's DNA sample of a To'kustar, is designed after Ultraman in body form, color scheme, and height. Ultimate Way Big also seems to be based of Ultraman Taro in body form, but his color scheme is more closely related to Ultraman Cosmos. Coincidently, the transformation is used under a time limit much like the color-timer. Way Big Way_big_Ben 10.png|Way Big first debuted in Ben 10. Way_big_Ben 10 Alien Force & Ultimate Alien.png|Way Big as in Ben 10 Alien Force & Ben 10 Ultimate Alien. Way_Big_Ben 10 Omniverse.PNG|Way Big as in Ben 10 Omniverse Way_Big_Ben 10 Omniverse Mad Ben ver.png|Mad Ben (evil counterpart of Ben Tennyson) as Mad Way Big. Omni-Big-cosmic.png|Way Big performing Cosmic Ray. Ultimate Way Big Ultimate_way_big.png|Ultimate Way Big in Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Ultimate_Way_Big_004.png|Ultimate Way Big performing Cosmic Ray. Ultimate_Way_Big_005.png|Ultimate Way Big performing Energy Disk attack. Ultimate_way_big_flight.png|Ultimate Way Big maneuvering flight in a manner of Ultraman's rise transformation. Ultimate_way_big_spin.png|Ultimate Way Big spinning by maneuvering acceleration. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 series) In the episode "T.C.R.I", Michelangelo is watching a show with a giant blue being similar in appearance to Ultraman firing a ray and destroying a giant monster. In the episode "The Legend of Kuro Kabuto", a professional burglar named Anton Zeck (Bebop) had a power where he could use the crest on his helmet and throw it at enemies similar to Ultraseven's Eye Slugger. Olive the Other Reindeer In the holiday special, near the end as Olive, Santa Claus, and the other reindeer as they were passing by Japan a giant monster referencing Godzilla, and a giant super hero referencing Ultraman were seen singing the end song with each other Regular Show In the 100th episode special episode "A Bunch of Full Grown Geese", during the final battle between the giant Baby Ducks and the giant Full Grown Geese, the ducks used a attack similar to Ultraman's Specium Ray the only difference being that he fired it from his left side instead of his right like Ultraman. Robot Chicken *In episode 100 one of the segments called "Power Forest Rangers" though a parody of the series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger) while the Forest Rangers was fighting Yogi Bear, the yellow ranger fires a beam at Yogi similar to Ultraman's Specium Ray except from his left side and with his cross hand backwards similar to Ultraman Hikari. *In episode 120 in the segment called "Appeasing the Gods" a parody of the movie "Cabin in the Woods" while the teenagers are looking at all the collectibles in the basement a figure of Red King can be seen on the table and a figure of Alien Baltan can be seen on one of the shelves on the wall. South Park In the episode "Mecha-Streisand", Leonard Maltin transform into a Ultraman like being and fights Mecha-Streisand alongside Sidney Poitier who becomes a giant Gamera-like monster but, is eventually beaten by Mecha-Streisand. Comic Books Marvel Miclas, un-related to the one that appeared as a capsule monster, appeared on the Marvel Universe, Earth-616's Monster Isle with creatures like Skreeal, Giganto, Tricephalous and Ugu. Miclas was one of the many monsters to terrorize the Skrull scouting party and their leader, Bag Le. He was subdued with Slave Darts and teleported around the globe in order to increase the mental stress level across the planet and cause mass confusion. Trivia *Miclas in the Marvel universe is the only one depicted as an evil entity. *The Marvel Miclas has not shown to have any powers besides brute strength. *Miclas managed to show up in Marvel comics due to Popy liscensing their Ultraseven sofubi toys to Mattel for distribution in the United States, who integrated them into a spinoff of their Shogun Warriors toy line called Godzilla's Gang. At the time, Mattel had Marvel market these toys through their comics. Videogames Pokémon Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon, has said that it was Ultra Seven's Capsule Kaiju that inspired him to have the collected Pokémon inside containers that could be carried in ones pocket. Also noted that the original concept of Pokeballs were small capsules that indeed based on said capsule monsters. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 An adult Chi-Chi was made as one of the game's playable character. However, since she never used chi-based skills, she was given one, Power Slugger and Super Power Slugger, where she fired an energy blade projectile from her head, mirroring Ultraseven's Eye Slugger and her childhood's helmet. Attack of the Friday Monsters: A Tokyo Tale The game is essentially a love letter to the Ultra series. Several of the monsters on the Monster Cards are reminiscent of monsters from the Ultra Series, there's a defense force, and towards the end of the game, the protagonist's father, who runs a laundromat, transforms into the Ultra-themed giant Cleaner Man to fight against a real monster . Movies Big Hero 6 The 2014 Disney movie Big Hero 6, during one of the scenes in Hiro Hamada's bedroom, you can see a mask of Ultraman. Yet this was interesting since the boy lives in the City of Fransokyo (a combination of Tokyo, Japan and San Francisco, America). BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui Right near the film's falling action, while Turaga Lhikan was slowly dying from the impact after protecting Toa Vakama from Makuta Teridax' Shadow Hand, the Heartlight on his chest slowly blinks until it faded away when Lhikan died. This was likely a reference to the Ultra Troupe when an Ultra died, his Color Timer slowly blinked and completely faded. The whole Heartlight concept may be a reference to the Ultraman franchise. Pretty Cure All Stars New Stage: Mirai no Tomodachi A group of girls at Ayumi's school discuss themselves about the Pretty Cures' successful battle against Fusion. One of the fangirls performs a "Pretty Cure beam" by placing her hands in a + position, a reference to Specium Ray, the signature attack of Ultraman. Other Tokusatsu Gekisou Sentai Carranger Braking has a weapon which he detaches from his head similar to Ultraseven's eye slugger. Its name is the King Slugger. Radiacar Robo does a rise similar to Ultraman's when growing bigger and is under a one minute time limit A blurred image and silhouette of Alien Baltan appeared in the of the Kamen Rider × Super Sentai × Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Otsu: Heroo! Answers. Alien Baltan appeared as an ex-boyfriend of Electro-Wave Human Tackle HeroOtsu_Alien_Baltan_Shadow.jpg|Alien Baltan's Shadow in Super Hero Taisen Otsu HeroOtsu_Alien_Baltan_BlackStrip.jpg|Alien Baltan with Tackle Tensou Sentai Goseiger One of Atlata's transformations mimics the rising scene of an ultra. atlata transforms.jpg into ultraman.jpg ToQger In episode 43 of Ressha Sentai ToQger, Right briefly made the specium ray gesture after his attack was blocked. Kamen Rider OOO Net Videos In one of the Kamen Rider OOO net videos, Date compares Os' Shauta form to Ultraman. The copyrighted name is censored. Godzilla vs. Hedorah Godzilla performs UltraSeven's Wide Shot in Godzilla vs. Hedorah. Armor Hero In the Chinese tokusatsu series Armor Hero, the message boards member "model freak" has ultraman action figures in his room. When made an admin of said message boards, one of the characters makes the specium ray gesture. Shuriken Sentai Ninninger Takaharu; the AkaNinger, in his Chozetsu form does an ultra rise scene upon growing to giant size to fight alongside his OtomoNin in Episode 26. Kamen Rider Drive In episode 40, the Booster Tridoron in Type Wild used an attack that was similar to the Gun Loader's Bringer Fan when it's in Maneuver Mode. Real-life Influences These are list of peoples and real life-related things whose inspiration towards Ultraman had influence their life. Emoticons While the Ultra Series franchise had gotten more popular, two of the franchise's most popular character, the original Ultraman and Alien Baltan had their own emoticons. *Ultraman: (o|o) *Alien Baltan: (V)o￥o(V) Line App Global Line stickers of the Ultra Series' characters, ranging from Ultra Heroes to Ultra Kaiju had been sold under the price of USD$1.99. Purchase here: https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/1313/en Akira Toriyama born on April 5, 1955, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture) is a widely acclaimed Japanese manga and game artist who lives in Kiyosu. Akira had mentioned himself as a big fan of Ultra Series and Godzilla films, putting several elements from the Ultra Series into his works such as Dragonball, Dr. Slump, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman and Wonder Island. Geek Crash Course Geek Crash Course is a weekly webseries created and hosted by Michael Nixon and Diana Dekajlo. The show airs every Wednesday on Blip, Youtube, and their Facebook page. The show's purpose is to educate newcomers to their friend's geeky things they don't quite understand in a simple condensed format that gives the viewer the basics of what its about. Occasionally, Michael and Diana give the viewers homework assignments in the form of recommendations and sometimes what to avoid in terms of long-running franchises as well as trivia on the subject. Michael Nixon is a big tokusatsu fan, so on February 2012, the month of his birthday, he declared that he would do a month of Toksusatsu videos on GCC including a video on Ultraman on July 31, 2012. The show also features special GCC episodes designed to prep moviegoers for films based on pop-culture properties or centered in the Sci-Fi or Fantasy genre. On December 18, 2013, the two announced in a vlog that Michael had moved to Los Angeles and thus the show's format would change in 2014. The first and last week of each month would be a Geek Crash Course "Classic" episode, where the two would tackle a subject together like before while the other weeks would feature a Geek Crash Course East or Geek Crash Course West episode where Diana or Michael would tackle a subject individually. References *Geek Crash Course | Wikizilla, the Godzilla Resource and Wiki External Links *Official Blip Page *Official Site *Official Youtube page *Official Facebook Page *Official Twitter Page Steven Moffat Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat is shown in DWM issue 480 with a Hugo Award - and a silver Ultraman. BrickCon 2010 The LEGO BrickCon of 2010's main theme was "Big in Japan" and featured a model of Ultraman vs. Baltan, along with other toku characters, such as Gundams, MechaGodzilla and Guyver IV. The Ultraman diorama was made by Lino Martins, and appeared in Beckett Build magazine. 5761225284_c4a68d49d3_o.jpg|Baltan 5761225384_008dd3c3aa_o.jpg|Ultraman 2015 Google Doodle In July 7, 2015, Google celebrated Eiji Tsuburaya's 114th birthday by creating a mini game Google Doodle, where players would help him in his studio in filming a scene for the Ultraman-like hero fighting against several Kaiju. *The Google Doodle's site Category:Browse Category:Other Media Category:Content